All Elite Wrestling has all the hallmarks of a company that will soon be snapping at the heels of WWE .
It has billionaire backers and top talent in the form of 'The Elite' - Cody Rhodes, Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks - plus WWE legend Chris Jericho.
The company is selling out stadiums in minutes and there's already rumours of many WWE superstars jumping ship to join the growing AEW roster.
One acquisition making waves is Ring of Honor star Britt Baker, now known both in and outside the ring as Dr. Britt Baker, having passed her dental exams.
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At the company’s first show All In last September, the 27-year-old battled Chelsea Green, Tessa Blanchard and Madison Rayne, in a bout won by Blanchard.
In January, at a rally to promote AEW's next event, Double or Nothing, Baker was then revealed as the company's first female signing, to a tremendous response.
Visiting London for her first appearance with Pro-Wrestling: Eve, Baker set another record by giving her first UK exclusive interview to Mirror Sport's Danny Stone.
You came to the UK for your first ever visit, what brought you to our shores?
I'm here for Pro-Wrestling: Eve, it's an independent company that runs all-women shows. It's really cool to be coming over for something that values women's wrestling. It's overcoming the wrestling world now, women's wrestling, so that's really exciting.
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You've signed a contract with AEW and your match for the company's second major event has been announced against Nyla Rose and Kylie Rae. What are your thoughts going into this match?
These are two serious competitors that I personally have no experience with. I've never wrestled Kylie Rae, I've never wrestled Nyla Rose. I'm more familiar with Kylie Rae, I know her, she was my room-mate in Japan. I was in the match where she broke her collar bone in Japan, I was her tag partner. So, I definitely have a connection with Kylie but that is thrown out of the window when she's on the other side of the ring from me. She's an opponent now, we're not a tag-team.
Nyla Rose, I'm not familiar with whatsoever. There's an obvious size and strength advantage and I know she's very respected in Japan, so no-one to take lightly. I'm going to be putting down the dental books I've been studying, for the next few months, and studying these two continuously so I know them inside and out.
This is a huge match, a huge show and my second with this group of people. I didn't win at All In so I have everything to prove. Maybe even more so to prove than the other two in the match.
What do you hope to see in respect of women's wrestling from AEW?
I think the heavy focus on the women's 'revolution' makes it seem like at one-point women were an underdog. I'd rather it to just be not so much men's wrestling and women's wrestling but that we're all on the same playing field. So it's not so much 'the women's uprising' - women are just here and seen in the same light as the men. So recognised, normalised equality, rather than putting it on such a pedestal.
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Do you have any insider knowledge on what AEW's UK plans are?
I don't! They're very tight lipped about everything. You'll have noticed they recently signed Bea Priestley, who I think is absolutely fantastic! She's a wonderful wrestler and I'm really excited to get to share a ring with her someday, as I've never wrestled her either.
But so far as the outreach into the UK, other than the obvious signing of some UK talent, I can't really say much about that. However, they want to change the world and UK wrestling is a huge part of the world, so I can't imagine they're not going to be working their way over here for some shows.
You wrestled in the Mae Young Classic and on NXT. What happened, was it part of a plan that didn't pan out?
That was absolutely part of my plan, because before AEW I think most wrestlers would be lying if they said WWE wasn't a goal for them because that's the hierarchy, the gold standard of wrestling for the longest time. Now, you have this alternate promotion that is offering amazing benefits, great pay, a weekly wrestling TV schedule, but not so heavy on the travel, which is good, as I want to keep my dental job.
If you would have asked me three or four years ago when I started wrestling whether I would have worked for any other company than WWE in the long-term, I would have told you no. So it just shows you how appealing AEW is, not just to the fans but the wrestlers themselves and the wrestling world.
It's a huge opportunity and does nothing but elevate WWE as well. The people in WWE are going to be working harder, be better compensated, because there is this other promotion coming up, on the rise.
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You suffered an injury when you wrestled NXT Women's Champion Shayna Baszler. Can you tell us about that and have you fully recovered?
It was a total freak accident, nothing intentional, obviously. Shayna's a professional, it was just getting through the last little bit of the match to finish the story, the elevation of this fantastic UFC fighter turned wrestler that she is. I've nothing but respect for Shayna and I've wrestled her before on the indies, a wonderful girl. I'm fully healed now.
You've mentioned your dentistry job, it's turned into a full character 'gimmick'! Was that always your intention?
It wasn't, it wasn't. They say the best wrestling gimmicks are a heightened version of yourself and that's me! I’m happy to say I’m the first woman signed to AEW but I can't say I'm the first dentist in wrestling because of [WWE character] Isaac Yankem [aka Kane]. So I can say I'm the first woman dentist in wrestling, so I have that going for me.
You don't watch back any Isaac Yankem matches for inspiration?
I get sent GIFs and tweets, everything. Every single show, when I'm signing merchandise, I get asked, I'd say at least three times, 'do you know Isaac Yankem?' or 'do you know he's a dentist?'. 'Yes, I do. I'm very much aware…'
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Have you had to use your dentistry to help someone in the ring? Would you?
This has happened! Once was actually with Shayna Baszler. The whole Shimmer locker room started frantically texting me to come check on her - she had fractured her front tooth right at the nerve, so we called to get her in for an emergency root canal in Chicago! She had the other half of the broken tooth in a bottle of water. I was still in school so I didn't do the root canal myself, just told her that she absolutely needed one!
Wrestlers are constantly messaging me or asking me questions at shows about dental concerns whether it be treatment, dental anxiety concerns, financial concerns, etc. I'm always happy to be a help!
You started in the States, have been to Japan and are now competing in the UK. Has your style evolved?
Yes. I think one of the benefits of being able to travel, is that your own wrestling style adapts and evolves to the different locations and different styles of the different women – or sometimes men – that you are wrestling.
So I think my style, one of its advantages, is that I'm able to adapt to the different wrestlers I'm competing against. Whether it be a high-flyer, or the strong style, or a more technical wrestling, I can keep up with that but also take pieces of that with me so that I can add some of that to my own personal style for the next match.
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One of your matches that many will have watched was your debut for AEW at All In. You came in to one of [NXT's] Adam Cole's entrance themes - why that song?
My song at All In was totally my choice. My boyfriend - Adam Cole - wanted to be at the show to support me so badly, but he unfortunately was told he was not allowed to attend by his place of employment. Being the wonderful boyfriend he is, he still flew to Chicago and actually watched the show back at the hotel so he was able to at least be in the city to celebrate with me, and serve as my support system.
He has been such a help in mentoring me as a wrestler and I am so thankful to have the opportunity to pick the brain of one of the best wrestlers out there, on a daily basis. His mind for wrestling is just genius. Coming out to his song was a sort of a tribute and thank you to him, plus I knew the fan base that All In attracted would recognise the tune right away and be able to put two and two together!
I won't be using it again. That was a onetime thing. I still want to be associated as my own wrestler and I will have my own entrance theme, but don't be surprised if the diehard Adam Cole fans are able to pick up on some subtle 'tributes' to him here and there.
Your partner, Adam, is with WWE. You're signed to AEW. Do you have to be careful not to let your future plans slip to one another?
He's my number one fan, no matter what I do. He's very supportive of both myself and AEW. It's no secret that he's very good friends with, and wrestled for I don’t know how many years with the Young Bucks in Ring of Honor. He was in the Bullet Club. He's good friends with Cody [Rhodes], Kenny [Omega], Adam Page, all of them. So, he's just as happy for their success as everyone else.
Of course, he has his own thing going on for him right now, he's focusing on that and very happy and excited about it but that's not to say he can't be excited for other people in his life who are also having successful wrestling careers at the moment.
So with his friends and his partner in AEW, it will surely be a hard decision when the time comes whether he should make the jump to that company?
Yeah, we’ll see what happens. I know he's very happy where he is right now, with what he's doing, but you never know.
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Well are there any other people you'd like to see in AEW, that you'd like to face or from those already signed that you're excited to wrestle?
I think I'm going to stop answering this question.. because the first time I said Kylie Rae, and the next week she got signed. Then I mentioned another one Bea Priestley and I don't want people to think that I'm just saying people I already know are going to be signed, because that's not the case whatsoever.
I have nothing but trust and respect for any decisions that the Elite are going to make in signing women to AEW so I'm just excited to see who they choose and who they want to represent the brand.
Numerous women wrestlers have said they found it hard rising through the ranks as they faced gender discrimination. Did you find that when you were coming up?
I'm very fortunate that when I came into wrestling the thickest of those walls had already started to be broken down. I trained with all men. When I was first learning how to wrestle, it was all men. I don't see that as a disadvantage. When you're getting trained having to jump over men, or getting hit by men, it makes it a little bit easier when you get into the ring with a woman and just the obvious size and strength change.
I can't think of any moments that stand out for me, by the time I started wrestling, except for the obvious 'Bay Bay' references [to Adam Cole] which do not bother me whatsoever. Nothing about us being just 'hot girls' in the ring.
Ever since I started wrestling, we've all been respected as wrestlers, so I've been very fortunate and very grateful and thankful to the women that came before me to create this environment that's here today. This very positive, uplifting, women, equality wrestling genre that we're in.
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There's been a lot of attention on you as the first AEW woman signee. What has the reaction been like and how have you dealt with it?
I was very surprised. It actually got leaked by [wrestling journalist] Dave Meltzer that I had signed with the company before I had even signed anything! So I don't know where that information came from but I still had the papers sitting on my coffee table at home, kind of going through everything.
Obviously anytime anything gets leaked, it's a bit frustrating, like 'what, how did this happen?'. But to my advantage, the response was so positive and there was so much excitement that I couldn't have signed the papers faster. Not that it had anything to do with me to begin with, but just to have that extra added support backing me in the wrestling world. They were so happy, that was really a good feeling.
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Is there something that people don’t know about you that you think would be interesting or change people's perspective on you?
Not interesting, but just a side note. My parents when I first started wrestling could not have been any more upset. I had just started dental school, and they would say 'Britt, you have a guaranteed, successful career, and you're putting that at risk to do wrestling...' and wrestling is by no means anywhere close to guaranteed success. It's more so guaranteed injury along the way, so they obviously had their doubts about that.
I was in a bad car accident in high school, with head trauma, I had to be life flighted to a hospital. So that was always in the back of their heads too. But now, they've definitely turned the page. They see how much happiness it brings me. They see it's not what it used to be for women, some sex thing.
They come to almost any show I'm wrestling in, they sit in the front row, they wear my shirt, they scream and cheer. My dad will get in fights with people that are talking smack to me! It's so funny. They're coming to Double or Nothing, I can’t wait!
All Elite Wrestling's Double or Nothing will be held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on May 25.
